Roche Notches Fresh Win amid Crowd of Immunotherapy Cocktails

The logo of Swiss drugmaker Roche is seen at its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland February 1, 2018. REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann

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By John MillerZURICH (Reuters)

Roche’s Tecentriq mixed with an older drug cut the risk of death in kidney cancer, marking another win for the Swiss drugmaker’s immuno-oncology (I/O) cocktail as it battles better-established medicines made by its rivals

Tecentriq, paired with Roche’s Avastin, cut risk of renal cell carcinoma advancing or death (PFS) by 26 percent in patients whose tumors expressed high levels of a protein believed to help avoid immune detection, the Basel-based drugmaker said on Tuesday.

Roche said the overall survival benefit in its IMmotion 151 trial looked encouraging, but that data was not yet mature.

Success of Roche’s trial, so far, compares favourably with the mixed results in last year’s study by Bristol-Myers Squibb for its Opdivo and Yervoy combination against kidney cancer.

So far, Tecentriq with its 487 million Swiss francs ($519.30 million) in sales in 2017 is still chasing Merck’s Keytruda with $3.8 billion and Bristol’s Opdivo with $4.9 billion.

The success of three different approaches against different cancers suggests doctors will face tough decisions over which cocktail to use, since tumors of the same organs can differ wildly from patient to patient.

“Physicians will have a challenge deciding which biomarker to use to and which therapeutic option to consequently prioritize,” Barclays analyst Emmanuel Papadakis said

With its medicine fighting to gain traction, Roche says understanding which immunotherapy combination works best remains a work in progress. The Swiss drugmaker has six Tecentriq trials to read out by July.

“As we approach the end of this year, we’ll have a much clearer evidence base,” Roche drugs division chief Dan O’Day said on Friday.